Residents cheer 17th Street plan

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- To the sound of uproarious applause from a standing-room

crowd Monday, the City Council unanimously approved a plan for East 17th

Street that many community members hope will block any future attempts to

widen the road.

Before voting, the council listened to about an hour of public

comments on the issue while the rowdy City Hall audience cheered, booed

and waved double-sided fliers that read “Plan B is better. Vote tonight!”

and “Four lanes forever! Vote now!”

“There’s something inherently wrong about this plan, and you need to

recognize that,” said Mark Rogers, a Costa Mesa resident and a planner

for TRG Land Inc. in Newport Beach.

The council had to choose between two options. Plan B, the one the

council chose, has narrower turn lanes and bus bays -- between 10 and 10

1/2 feet wide -- and the option for a pedestrian-oriented shopping area.

Plan E called for wider turn lanes and bus bays -- between 11 and 13 feet

wide -- and the option to add two lanes to the street at a later date.

A main differences between the two plans is that Plan E would allow

the city to apply for Measure M money.

Approved by voters in November 1990, Measure M raised the sales tax by

half a cent for countywide transportation improvement projects. The

Orange County Transportation Authority administers the Measure M sales

tax revenue.

In 1999, the agency pledged to distribute close to $4 million in

federal grants if the street is widened to six lanes.

The city won’t receive any of that money, although they still could

reapply for other funding.

The city could have been eligible for enough to cover at least the

design costs, estimated at $250,000, if the council chose the option with

wider lanes.

The most of the 20 or so speakers supported Plan B, saying that Plan E

would have paved the way for the street to be widened to six lanes in the

future, which they think would increase traffic and hurt businesses and

property values.

Many also said they think widening the street would only benefit

Newport Beach residents who use the street to get to the Costa Mesa

Freeway, adding that Newport Beach should solve some of its own traffic

problems, possibly by lengthening the the freeway.

Mayor Libby Cowan said the city now will have to come up with other

plans for the area. She has not supported six lanes on East 17th Street.

“We have work to do,” she said. “We are going to have to take the

widening off the master plan of arterial highways if we don’t want to go

to six lanes. I too am tired of unilateral moves by Newport Beach. But I

think staff has taken a lot of heat on our behalf by the community, all

of it undeserved.”

Not everyone supported Plan B, however.

Charlotte Johnson, a Costa Mesa resident on the East 17th Street Ad

Hoc Committee, was one of a few who spoke in favor of Plan E.

“I’m not for six lanes either,” she said. “Some of you are talking

like Plan E is six lanes. I hate to admit it, but traffic is there and at

some point in the future, they are going to widen it and it is going to

take taxpayers’ money. Right now, there will be no money for anything if

we choose Plan B. And with Plan E, we’ll get improvements, traffic

signals and bus turnouts.”